origin of life (The atheist delusion)

by dhw, Friday, January 18, 2008, 17:10 (6152 days ago) @ George Jelliss

Once again, my thanks ... also for the "Origin" website. This is the sort of contribution I was hoping for when I set up the AgnosticWeb, which as I tried to stress on the home page is to be taken only as a starting-point. An exchange of ideas and information is the only way that any of us can learn, and amid the welter of books and articles, I hoped the forum might provide productive support for people like myself who cannot leap either way. - I don't think it would be right for me to amend the text this time, as what I wrote is not an error of fact as such, and ... crude though it is ... may not even be that wide of the mark. No-one knows. But what you have provided is constructive criticism and a source for further discussion and investigation, which is precisely the purpose of the website. Perhaps eventually I shall be able to write a much more accurate "guide". Or perhaps you will do it, or have done it. - The amateurish (I agree) summary is framed in order to prepare for what seems to me an equally crude over-simplification by Dawkins (dealt with in my section on "Origins"), who condenses the miracle of life's origin to a single factor: "the spontaneous arising by chance of the first hereditary molecule" ... which even he agrees may be "very, very improbable". I have tried to show here that the miracle entails our first molecule coming to life, being able to reproduce itself, and having the potential to adapt itself and to form hitherto non-existent faculties, organs and processes. I think (maybe I'm wrong) that this combination will apply to any origin-of-life theory. My suggestion is that it adds several more "verys" to the degree of improbability, which makes it difficult for me to believe in such chance spontaneity. That does not make me a Creationist, or even a theist ... just as difficult to believe in ... and it's interesting that so far the discussion on the forum has been confined exclusively to the first third of the so-called "guide". But it's early days. - Thank you again.